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I’ve enjoyed Greek food as long as I remember, but never thought I’d be able to create a Greek feast at home. A few years ago, on holiday in Crete, the hotel owners were preparing some food for their weekly barbeque, and I was keen to watch and see if I could pick up some tips. And I did. And from that day onwards, I have been able to throw together a bit of a Greek inspired feast. It may not be authentic, but it tastes bloody good and its pretty easy to put together and impress.
My bestie and her daughter came over at the weekend for a lazy day in the garden. The kids played happily whilst we enjoyed, drinking wine, catching up and having a meal together. It was so laid back and exactly what weekends are all about. As we don’t often get a chance to go out to a nice restaurant, we wanted to create a restaurant experience at home.
We set our industrial look dining table with our tropical placemats; nice candles; plus a mixture of charity shop vintage plates and Asian inspired bowls. We set the table, adults at one end and the two kids at the other end, and the kids end was decorated just as fancy as the adults end.
What I love about this meal is that all the preparation can take place in advance of your guests arriving. Then its simply a case of popping the oven on and letting it do the hard work while you pan fry your flat breads. This means you spend more time relaxing with your guests and there is no stress in the kitchen.
The meal prep
Souvlaki is how Greeks refer to meat cooked on a stick, typically pork or chicken. But I can never be bothered with the stick, so I simply grab an oven dish, chop up some chicken breasts and thigh meat, or pork shoulder and add the marinade. The marinade is usually 1-2 teaspoons of herbs and spices including oregano, sweet paprika, rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I’ve adapted my recipe from The Mediterranean Dish altering the spice levels depending on who I am making this for. I like to prepare this the day before eating and let it rest in the fridge so that the flavours infuse into the meat.
Baked feta is such an easy thing to make and yet it tastes like heaven. The texture of the cheese changes completely and it becomes light fluffy and mellow in flavour. If you have a stoneware tapas dish you can use this, but if not, simply make a parcel out of foil. On the base of the parcel add some finely sliced onions. I like to use red onions as the colour seeps into the feta making it a gentle pink colour. On top of the onions place the block of feta. I sometimes cut the block into 2 or 4 pieces. Sprinkle with 1tsp of both oregano and black pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Finally place some more onions on top and then wrap up the foil parcel. Some recipes recommend tomatoes and/ or olives in the parcel too but I find this adds too much liquid to the parcel and prefer to add these as decoration once the cheese is baked.
Both dishes are oven ready. Set the oven to its highest temperature and pop the dishes in for ten minutes. Reduce the heat to around 190oC and leave for 30-40 minutes. For the last fifteen minutes I take the foil off the chicken. check its cooked through and its ready to serve. The cheese can simply sit in its parcel in the oven no problem at all.
The flatbreads are quite possible the easiest thing in the world, and they taste so much nicer than anything shop bought. Its approximately double the amount of flour to plain yoghurt. I use any flour I have including strong white bread flour, plain flour, self-raising.
In a large bowl pour in the yoghurt and slowly add in the flour. I like to stir with a fork watching the mix thicken to form a dough. To be honest, if I actually got my act together and collected my KitchenAid from my parents’ house then I would pop it all in there with the bread hook and let it do the work. I like to add oregano and black pepper to the mix, and I have also added nigella seeds, onion powder and paprika. You could also add chopped fresh herbs too if you like.
Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about five minutes. Place it into a bowl and leave it to rest until you are ready to use it. I often leave it an hour or so, but it does vary. When ready to make flatbreads, simply heat a non-stick pan on the hob and do not add any oil at all. Pull a small amount of dough and flatten on a floured surface. Once it’s as flat as you’d like, simply place it into the dry hot pan and leave it. After a couple of minutes, you will see the colour and texture change. Check to see that the pan side down of the bread is beginning to toast nicely and if it is, you can use a spatula to flip it and toast the other side for a few minutes. The first bread always takes slightly longer to form than the others as the pan hasn’t quite got up to full heat yet.
The rest of the spread in the photo above are a selection of red cabbage coleslaw, simply sliced red cabbage marinated in white wine vinegar salt and pepper and left for about an hour so that the vinegar softens the cabbage. There’s also a Greek-inspired salad of chopped red onions, cucumber and tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper and oregano. Drizzle both salads with the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford and keep it for drizzling over finished dishes. My latest favourite is Carpella organic extra virgin olive oil which picked up for about a fiver in Sainsburys. The olives and stuffed peppers are a selection of shop-bought goodies from my favourite Lidl.
In under an hour you’ve created a fantastic Greek-inspired feast. The kids and you have had an amazing kitchen disco and worked up an appetitie. Perfect as we were then able to sit down to an impressive-looking feast that is very easy to prepare but will knock your guests socks off.
Why not give it a go? If you have any other go-to dinner party type spreads that you think I should try, why not let me know in the comments, drop me an email or get in touch on social media.
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